Friday, August 12, 2016

Friday Morning Hot Links

Well. That gave me the vapors. After scoring 23 runs in nine August games prior to yesterday's doubleheader, the Astros pounded out 25 runs in one day. Or, the Astros had scored 25 runs in the eleven games from July 30-August 9, a span of 410 plate appearances.

Game 1 recapGame 2 recap.

*Hinch:
We had one continual day of offense that didn't stop. It was a fun day; a long day, pretty exhausting, but to walk out of here with two twins after being down by a lot of runs in the rain is a pretty good feeling. 

Gattis:
It's crazy. It's like feast or famine right now for us.

The Astros had 35 hits and were 13x34 w/RISP on the day. The 35 hits and 25 runs ranked second in Astros' franchise doubleheader history. Doubleheader stats:

Springer: 5x9, 6RBI
Altuve: 5x9, 3RBI
Correa: 4x8, 2HR, 4RBI
Marwin: 6x11, 3RBI

The Rockies Ranger'd the Rangers, answering a Texas 4-run 7th with a 5-run 8th to win 12-9. The Orioles beat the A's. The Yankees beat the Red Sox. The Astros are 7.5 GB of West Greeneville, 1.0 GB of Seattle. They're 4.5 GB of Baltimore for WC1 and 2.0 GB of Boston for WC2 with Detroit and Seattle between Houston and the WC2.

*Altuve is hitting .434 on the road, which would be the highest road batting average in 91 years. Hinch:
You guys and copy and paste everything I've said to this point. There's not much more to say. He's the best hitter in the league. Period.

*Fister, on Altuve:
He's like a video game. He just continues to amaze. For me, I'm just going to try and let him get himself out.

Altuve is the first Astro to record eight four-hit games in a single season.

*Chris Devenski got his first major-league win, after going 0-4 to this point in the season, all in relief.  Hinch, on Devenski:
He picked us up big time by going through five innings. He's so efficient when he's right. He got into the fifth inning relatively quickly. We started the game with 60-70, maybe 75 pitches, and he maximized all the outs. He's tough to hit when he's in the strike zone. Guys want to go up and swing against him and he can disrupt the timing as well as anybody on our team.

*Ken Giles will go on paternity leave today. The corresponding move is expected to be Luke Gregerson's activation from the DL, but it's not 100%.

*Be sure to check out this lovely piece of garbage from the Post-Dispatch's Jeff Gordon (from yesterday):
Somebody should hack into the Astros' baseball operation and check that scouting report Jeff Luhnow had on Carlos Gomez...

*Tal's Hill is indeed coming down after the 2016 season, and you can click through to see the conceptual renderings. It'll be weird to see a 90-degree angle in the outfield. Doubt anything can go wrong there. However, if you click through to Image 3 in the slideshow at the top of the article (Chron gonna Chron), you'll see what the outfield will look like. Also, look at the score on the scoreboard. The morally-bankrupt artist already has the Astros down 5-0 to the Ramgers.

*Do you want the Astros to replace Jason Castro with Wilson Ramos? Read this.

*Read about Fresno embracing their taco side.

*FanGraphs: So you want to salvage Carlos Gomez?

*Ken Rosenthal: The Mariners didn't panic at the deadline, and now it's paying off.

*What's it like to be 16-years old and watch one of your friends make Olympic history?

*Before you go: Check out Jose Altuve's spray chart